When you’re sweating ‘neath the collar,
And your belt is getting loose,
The chiggers they are biting
And are itching like the deuce,
Your legs are getting weary
And you are tired as sin,
Just tighten up your belt, my boy,
And keep a-digging in.

For Satan he is bragging
With his banner all unfurled,
And with his vassal, Hitler,
He is out to rule the world,
Amidst his mighty legions,
With power, pomp and sin.
Just tighten up your belt, my boy,
And keep a-digging in.

After the battle’s over
And the smoke is cleared away,
You’ll find that Christ has conquered
In His quiet, gentle way.
And you, His emissary,
Who stuck through thick and thin,
Will find it was because, my boy,
You kept a-digging in.

His grandpa couldn’t have known in 1940 that the U.S. would ultimately enter the war, or that Elder Hadlock, home from his mission, would join the Army. In particular, he couldn’t have known that Elder Hadlock would join the Army Air Forces, and not have to do any “digging in” at all.

All that digging was reserved for the men in the infantry. And, as a famous cartoon* by Bill Mauldin shows, they were happy to be able to dig in–it saved a lot of their lives.

*Not famous enough, apparently, to be retrievable on any Google search. It showed Mauldin’s two G.I.s, Willie and Joe, on board a ship, asking a sailor where they could find some dirt–they wanted to dig a foxhole.